Gas-sensing system using an array of coated quartz crystal microbalances with a fuzzy inference system

Quartz crystal microbalances have high mass sensitivities. Their application in gas sensing has been limited because they are required to have both high selectivity and reversibility. Yet by the inherent nature of their operation these properties are mutually exclusive. One approach to this problem is to use an array of quartz crystal microbalances. We have used an array of six coated quartz crystal microbalances for the classification of methanol, propan-1-ol, butan-1-ol, hexane, heptane and toluene. A novel classification scheme using fuzzy membership functions was found to be highly efficient.